


The Twelve Dancing Force-Users

by imaginary_golux



Series: Fractured Fairy Tales [10]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Twelve Dancing Princesses Fusion, F/M, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-17
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-23 00:50:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8307487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: Retired soldier Poe Dameron decides to try to solve the mystery of where Queen Leia's twelve wards go every night to dance their shoes to shreds. If he succeeds, he'll get to choose a spouse from among them...but that might be just as much of a challenge.
Beta by my ever-wonderful, ever-patient Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.





	

Once upon a time, a very long time ago and _very_ far away, there was a queen who had taken in twelve children, each cleverer and lovelier than the next, to be her students and someday her heirs. They slept in twelve beds in one long room, and every night when they retired, the door was shut and locked, for the queen did not wish her children to come to harm. Yet each morning when the door was opened, the shoes of the twelve princes and princesses were found to be quite worn through, as though they had been danced in so long and so hard that they had been worn away to shreds. No one could find out how this could come to pass, for any servants who spent the night in the room were found to be quite asleep in the morning, so deeply that it took them entire days to wake, and any who listened outside the door heard nothing at all. The princes and princesses would not tell anyone where they had been, or what they had done; though the two youngest of them, when they were asked, would look at the asker with wide sad eyes and shake their heads as though they would weep if they thought of it; and this was a source of great dismay to all the court.

So the queen, in desperation, made it known that if any person should find where her children went each night to dance their shoes to shreds, that person should have the prince or princess they liked best to wed, and would rule when the queen had gone to her ancestors; and any who came to try their luck should have three nights to discover the truth; but if they did not discover it, they must be exiled forever from the kingdom - for, said the queen, there must be a price for a prize of great worth, after all, and her student-wards were the most precious prize in all the kingdom.

There were many who came to try their luck, from all the kingdoms around, king’s sons and duke’s daughters and the countless children of viscounts and barons, and each stayed three nights in the royal bedchamber, and each in turn went away weary and sad, for none could discover the truth. And this went on for many days, until at last even the prize of a royal marriage could not induce any more suitors to come forward, and the queen despaired of ever knowing what curse plagued her children so.

Now it came to pass that in that land there was a soldier, who had lately been discharged from his duties, and who had heard of the queen’s plight, and he said to himself, “It may well be that I shall fail like all the others before me, but then again I may yet prevail, and rid our good queen of this misery, and perhaps win myself a husband or a wife to love for all my days,” for the crown meant nothing to him, but he loved his queen dearly, and had done much for love of her and counted it of little cost.

So he made his way towards the palace, and when it became dark he found himself near an old inn, which was run by a woman so ancient that she had shrunk to the size of a child again; and she made him welcome and bade him eat and drink, and asked him whither he journeyed.

“I am going to see if I can discover the secret of the royal shoes,” he told her, “and perhaps win myself someone to love for all my days.”

“Well,” said the old woman, “that is not _such_ a hard task, if you but have the right tools. And since you are a well-mannered young man, and I too would like to see the queen’s great grief come to an end, I will give them to you. The first is a bit of advice: do not eat or drink anything the royal children offer you, but _pretend_ to consume it, and then feign sleep just as well as you are able.”

“That I can do, Grandmother,” the soldier said.

“Then here is the second thing,” the old woman said, and gave him a cloak, which had the power to make whoever wore it invisible. “With this you will be able to follow the royal children; but be wary, for it will not muffle any sounds you make.”

“I have learned stealth ere now,” the soldier said.

“Then here is the third gift,” said the old woman, and handed the soldier an iron bar as long as his arm, and said, “If you place this across a path, none may go down it, nor cross over the bar, until you lift it up again; but it may be used only once, and then shall rust away to nothing.” Then the soldier thanked her many times for her gifts, and before he left he made sure that she had enough wood to last her through the winter, and drew water from her well to fill the barrel beside her door, and would have fixed her roof, too, if she had not sent him on with laughter and good cheer.

So the soldier went to the queen, and presented himself, and to his great surprise she remembered him, and welcomed him, saying to the court and to her weary children, “This is Commander Poe Dameron, who has done me many great services ere now; therefore make him welcome as ye would a king’s son, for he is more worthy of such courtesy than many men of royal blood.”

And so he was seated among the royal children, between the two youngest, and given food and drink from their own plates, and he spoke kindly to them; and before the feast was over they had become fast friends, the young prince and the young princess and the soldier with his bright smile. After the feast he went again before the queen, and begged her indulgence in letting him attempt to learn the secret of the royal shoes; and the queen gave her permission, though she was sore grieved at the thought that her faithful servant would be lost to her when the three nights were up. And the young prince Finn and his heart’s companion Rey were saddened as well, for they had already become fond of the soldier, and did not wish him ill.

But the soldier was quite adamant that he wished to learn the secret, and so he was brought to the royal bedchamber, and shown to a small bed behind a curtain, where he might not intrude upon the privacy of the royal children; and when he had made himself comfortable, the eldest of the royal children, who called himself Kylo Ren, came and offered the soldier a goblet of wine. The soldier thanked him very prettily and took it, and pretended to drink, but secretly he poured it out beneath the bed, so that not a drop entered his mouth. And then he laid himself down and pretended to sleep, and snored as loudly as he could, so that his pretense should be well-made.

Then many of the royal children laughed heartily, and the eldest said, “He snores like a baying hound; it is as well we shall be elsewhere all the night.” Then all of the royal children rose from their beds and dressed themselves in their finery, silks and satins and lace as beautiful as stars in the night sky, and put on their new slippers.

But the soldier heard the youngest prince and his heart’s companion speaking to each other, very quietly, outside the curtain which shielded his bed, saying to each other, “Oh, I wish he was not asleep, and I wish he would wake and discover the secret, for it is very nearly too late for anyone to rescue us, and soon we shall be trapped forevermore.” And the young princess comforted her longtime companion, and he comforted her, but the soldier was struck to his heart at their unhappiness, and vowed that he should rescue them though it cost him his heart’s blood.

When all the royal children were dressed in their finest clothing, they went and looked in at the soldier, to make sure he was sleeping; but he did not move, only snored as loudly as he could, and the eldest prince laughed cruelly and said, “Even if I had not drugged his wine, he would have slept deeply enough; what a fool he must be, to think a common soldier would succeed where so many kings’ sons have failed.”

Then he went to his own bed, and clapped his hands sharply, and the bed sank away into the floor, and in its place there appeared a set of stairs going down into darkness. So one by one the princes and princesses went down the steps, not watching where they put their feet, as though they had done this a thousand times before; and the soldier, when they had gone away from his little alcove, rolled to his feet and wrapped the cloak around himself and followed them, hard on the heels of the youngest princess.

When they had gone down the stairs for a while, the soldier stepped forward too swiftly, and trod on the hem of the youngest princess’s dress, and she cried out in surprise. And the eldest prince called back, “What is that about?”

“It is nothing,” called the youngest princess, “only a divot in the stone which tripped me.” And so they went on, and the soldier swore that he would be more careful.

At last they reached the bottom, and the soldier found that they had entered a vast forest, and the trees were all made of silver with golden leaves and flowers of priceless jewels, and he bethought himself that a twig from such a tree would be a grand token to prove the truth of his tale. So he put out a hand and snapped off a very small twig, thinking that it would make a very small noise; but instead it made a sound like the breaking of a great branch, and the soldier froze, thinking surely he would be discovered in an instant.

“What was that?” the eldest prince called.

But the youngest prince replied, “Oh, I tripped, and caught myself on a branch; it is nothing.”

“Be a little more careful,” the eldest prince snapped, and they went on; and the soldier resolved that he had two allies at least among the royal children, and would rely on their aid and friendship wholly.

At last they came to the shore of a great dark lake, where twelve little boats were waiting, each with a cloaked figure at the oars; and the royal children got each into one boat or another. The soldier saw that the youngest princess was making a great deal out of getting into the boat, pretending that she was not able to catch her balance, and so he slipped into the boat beside her when the oarsman was distracted, and sat in the very bow making himself as small under the cloak as he could; and when he was seated the princess sat down as well. So they set off across the lake.

When they were halfway across, the cloaked oarsman said, “I do not know what the reason can be, but we are falling behind the other boats. Surely I am not weaker than I was last night.”

“It is most unseasonably warm,” said the princess; “and perhaps there are waterweeds or barnacles on the bottom of the boat. I have heard that such things are a great impediment to sailors.”

“Perhaps that is it,” agreed the oarsman, and rowed on; and at last they came to the other side of the lake, where rose a great dark palace all of obsidian and marble black as night. There all of the princes and princesses got out of the boats, and followed their cloaked escorts up to the palace, and made their obeisance to the man enthroned there. The soldier followed them as carefully and silently as he could, and made note in his mind of the palace and its silent, white-armored guards, and of the twisted king on his dark throne, and of the way that the eldest prince bowed most eagerly to their host, and the youngest prince and princess most reluctantly.

Then the cloaked escorts took off their cloaks, and took the royal children as their partners, and they all began to dance; and the soldier hid himself in a corner of the room and watched. And he saw that the eldest prince spoke long and often with his escort, whose red hair shone against his black cloak, and drew near to listen to them; and he heard the prince speaking of the day he should rule in this underground kingdom, and nevermore return to the lighted world above.

“It will be only a few more days,” his escort said, smiling a thin smile which chilled the soldier’s blood. “In a few more days, you will be fully ours; and there is nothing to stop our king’s enchantments from binding you.”

“Nothing at all,” the eldest prince replied, “for all the kings’ sons and dukes’ daughters have long since given up in despair, and our royal mother is reduced to reliance on sots like the soldier we left snoring upstairs; _he_ is no danger to us.”

“Good,” said the prince’s escort, and they danced on. But the soldier went quietly back to his corner, and wondered what it was which would happen in a few days, that the enchantments binding the royal children would not work until then.

At length the great clock at one end of the ballroom struck three in the morning, and all the royal children began to droop and sigh, saying that their shoes were quite worn through; and so their escorts brought them back to the boats (and the soldier concealed himself again in the bow of the youngest princess’s boat, with her aid), and back across the great lake, and the princes and princesses went wearily through the silver forest to the stairs. But the soldier ran ahead of them, and came to the royal bedchamber far before them, and rolled himself again in his blankets, and began to feign such snores as ought to have woken him with their volume, so that when the eldest prince came out of the stairway he said, “Faugh! The cur is so loud I shall have to put cotton in my ears. But at least he will know nothing of our secret.”

So the princes and princesses made themselves ready for bed, and laid themselves down, and were soon asleep; and the soldier dared at last to find his own rest, and slept very well, for he was very weary and very satisfied.

The next morning he professed to know nothing, for he was very curious indeed as to the meaning of what he had heard the night before, and that afternoon he contrived with the eager cooperation of the youngest prince and princess to go aside with them privately, and walk in the gardens of the palace; and he asked them, as quietly as may be, why it was that they went each night to wherever they went - for even to them he pretended he knew nothing - and returned again, for such a place as called them each night must be appealing enough to keep them forever.

“Ah,” said the young princess, who had a smile like sunshine and danced as lightly as a dream, “it is that I am not yet eighteen, and so my lady queen has claim to me still. But when I am eighteen there shall be nothing to bind me here.” And she looked very sad and weary as she said this, so that the soldier wished above all else to comfort her.

“And when shall you be eighteen?” he asked, and she replied that her birthday was but two days away.

“Tell me,” said the soldier, “is there any way to bind you here beyond that day?”

“Alas,” said the young prince, “it is impossible - unless it should be that one who knew the secrets that none know but we twelve should find a way to keep us from dancing on that night, for it is the dancing which lures and binds us, each and all.”

“Well now,” said the soldier, “perhaps I shall have some thought on that matter. Do you always go by the same route, to whatever land may call you?”

“Always and always,” said the young prince, who had eyes like the night sky full of stars and danced as gracefully as a hart in spring.

“Then I shall be well-prepared,” said the soldier, and would say nothing more.

That night, just as before, he pretended to drink of the drugged wine, and followed the royal children down the staircase to the silver forest, and across the lake to the dark palace, and watched as they danced until their pretty shoes were worn away; and when he saw an opportunity, he stole from a table one of the jeweled goblets from which they drank, thinking to himself that such a token, along with the twig, would prove his story. And again he hurried ahead of them to his bed in its alcove, and snored so loudly that the eldest prince cursed him for a drunken fool. And again that day he told the queen nothing.

But the third night, which was the night after the youngest princess’s birthday, the soldier rose from his bed while the princes and princesses were dressing in their finery, and went swiftly wrapped in his cloak to the side of the eldest prince’s bed, and when the eldest prince clapped his hands so that the bed sank away and the magical staircase appeared, the soldier cast the iron bar down across the steps. Then the eldest prince was very startled, but when nothing further occurred, he said, “This must be some new trick of Lord Snoke’s; let us not fear it,” and made as if to step forward down the stairs; but he could not pass the bar.

Then each of his companions tried to cross the iron bar, all from eldest to youngest, but none of them could do so. Then the eldest prince was wroth, and cried out against his companions, saying, “If we do not return to Lord Snoke’s halls tonight, we shall be banned from them forever. Who among you has done this thing?” But all of them swore that they had done nothing at all.

“Then it must be the soldier,” said the eldest prince, and went at once to rouse him; but the soldier concealed himself beneath the youngest prince’s bed, wrapped in his cloak, and though the eldest prince searched for him in every corner, he could not find him. So the eldest prince and many of his siblings bewailed themselves that they should not be able to go at last into the service of their dark Lord; but the youngest prince and the youngest princess came and sat upon the youngest prince’s bed together, and clung to each other, and prayed to every god of the Light that the iron should bar them all the night, and free them from their slavery. 

And at length the dawn came, and as the first light through the window struck the youngest prince and princess, they cried out, “We are saved! The spell is broken!”

And at their cry the servants without the room threw open the door, and the queen discovered her wards safe at last, free of the enchantment which Lord Snoke had placed upon them; and she embraced them with joy and relief, and wept over them. So the soldier emerged from his hiding place and took the iron bar from where it lay across the stairway; but before the stairway could close, the eldest prince flung himself past the soldier into the darkness, and the stone snapped shut behind him.

Then the queen was very grieved at the loss of her eldest son, who was the only child of her blood, and she said to the soldier, “Explain to me all that has befallen you.” So the soldier told her of the drugged wine, and the enchanted staircase, and the forest of silver trees, and produced from the breast of his tunic the twig and the goblet he had brought back; and he described the vast black palace and the twisted lord upon his throne, and the words he had heard between the eldest prince and his escort. Then the queen wept, but she said, “It is clear to me that there was nothing you could have done to prevent my son from choosing his fate, and you have freed all my other dear ones from this foul Lord Snoke and his enchantments; therefore choose among my students which shall be your wife or husband, and when you are wed you shall be my heirs, to rule after me.”

“My queen,” said the soldier, “in truth I cannot choose, for I have come to love prince Finn and princess Rey in equal measure, and to choose between them would be to make a choice between two priceless gems: there is no difference in their worth. So if either of them like of me, let them choose, and as they desire so shall I abide.”

So the queen said to her students, “Which of you desires this man as your husband?” But Rey and Finn could make no choice, for each desired Poe as devoutly as the other. And at length the queen said, “If you can make no choice then you must either give him up or share him.”

Then the youngest prince and princess said, together, “Then we will share him, each and each, and he will be married to us both.”

So the soldier married the queen’s two youngest students, and in time the old queen left her throne to them, and they ruled wisely and well, and loved each other, and were happy; and for all I know, they are ruling there still.

**Author's Note:**

> I am on tumblr as imaginarygolux: please drop on by!


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